Votes needed to send Athenian filmmakers to China

April Burkhart

Wednesday

Jun 26, 2013 at 9:16 AM

Two University of Georgia alumni hope to travel to China to film a documentary to showcase the beauty of China's wilderness.

Galen Burke and Lee Moore are finalists for a $10,000 Adventure Grant from Outside Magazine to hitchhike the Chinese section of the Silk Road in the northwestern part of the country. The route will take the duo through the Taklamakan Desert and the Tian Shan Mountains, where the Han Chinese live with such ethnic minorities as the Uighurs, Kazaks and Mongolians.

Voting in the Adventure Grant from Outside Magazine is open through the end of the day Friday, and the duo need the community's help to win.

Should they win the grant, Burke and Moore plan to explore each national park along the route, learn how the fast growth of China is affecting the country's natural spaces and interview residents to get their perspectives on nature and the outdoors.

"We're going to talk to Chinese people and ask them how they use the outdoors, what they think about the outdoors and what they think the relationship between humans and nature is, which is quite different from an American concept," Moore said.

Moore has always been fascinated with the Silk Road. He said he enjoys the nearby wilderness, the mix of ethnic groups that live along the route and the dangerous "Wild West" reputation of the region, even though he plans to stay north of the "showdown" areas.

Moore lived and worked in China for more than two years, doing graduate work in Mandarin at Nanjing University. He currently works as an independent consultant for businesses seeking to engage with Chinese customers.

Burke is a professional photographer, videographer and independent filmmaker who has been concentrating on outdoor and sports photography.

Both worked with the National Park Service for several years and have a working knowledge of national parks as tourist areas.

"Soon Chinese people are going to be coming into the United States and other Western countries as tourists," Moore said. "(Galen and I) both worked for the National Park Service and I think it does a great job ... but they are not doing enough to adapt to Chinese tourists.

"Part of the thinking behind this project was to address some of that and educate the community at large. It's important to understand how Chinese people think about nature and get a jump on how that's going to change tourist areas such as Yellowstone National Park and the Everglades and how we can adapt our way of thinking about nature as they come into the U.S."

Chinese tourism has the potential to be an amazing facet of incoming international revenue, Burke said.

"In order to effectively accept the number of Chinese tourists that have shown interest in traveling to Western countries in the past few years, there are changes that need to be made," he said.

In addition to explaining how the world is changing in the way of Chinese leisure activities, Burke also feels it's significant for Americans to see the natural beauty in other countries.

"As a person who deals in images and stories, I plan to focus on the natural expanse and beautiful scenery in China and tell the tale of the people we encounter," he said. "One of the comments that have circulated on Outside Magazine's website is from someone who expressed their excitement at being able to see the Chinese wilderness from the comfort of their own home. Another person who is disabled commented on how they are never going to be able to travel across the (Taklamakan Desert) and are happy to have a local perspective in which to see it."

After returning to the states and completing the documentary, Burke and Moore said they plan to screen the film in Athens. Moore said he hopes the film will open the eyes of Americans to the beauty of China's wilderness as well as make suggestions as to what the United States can do to prepare for an influx of Chinese tourism in the future.